The breach that erupted Thursday between the United States and Russia over Iraq has been building for a long time, rooted in suspicions about duplicity and espionage, conflicting political goals and cynicism over rival economic interests in the Persian Gulf region. The tensions over Iraq have grown gradually since the 1991 Persian Gulf War but have been largely papered over to preserve a strong diplomatic relationship between the two former rivals.

Iraqi officials welcomed a Russian plane Saturday--the second aircraft to land in two days without U.N. clearance--as evidence that the United Nations' decade-old trade sanctions were collapsing despite U.S. and British objections. The Tupolev-154 carrying 5 tons of medical supplies and 143 passengers, most of them businessmen, landed in Baghdad after its crew informed the U.N. sanctions committee in New York of its destination but did not wait for authorization.

The Kremlin's embarrassing misstep--proclaiming a breakthrough in the Iraqi standoff, only to have Baghdad swiftly deny that any deal had been struck--may have punched new chinks in the armor of resolve girding Russian diplomats, but they continued scrambling Tuesday to head off another war in the Persian Gulf. Russian officials stood unconvincingly behind their Monday claims that, thanks to Russian diplomacy, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was ready to make concessions to the U.N.

Tests confirm that a Russian tanker seized by the U.S. Navy in the Persian Gulf was carrying Iraqi oil in violation of a U.N. economic embargo, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said Sunday. The Volgoneft-147 was being taken to Muscat, the capital of Oman, and the Omani government will determine the fate of the merchant vessel and its crew, Cohen told reporters while flying back from Germany, where he attended a conference on European security.

Russia claimed credit Monday for a break in the international standoff with Iraq, asserting that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had agreed to a compromise that would let outsiders into some now-closed "presidential palaces" and possibly avert the growing threat of an American military strike to force Iraq's compliance with a disarmament program. But no sooner had the Kremlin publicized its diplomacy than American and United Nations officials called it insufficient and no real solution.

No one in the West thought it was a very good idea in the first place: a group of grandstanding nationalist lawmakers from Russia heading for Iraq with a planeload of medicine and with plans to portray Iraqi President Saddam Hussein as the victim in the current high-stakes standoff. So when the technicality of getting formal U.N. approval for the humanitarian flight from Moscow to Baghdad came up over the weekend, U.S. and British diplomats demanded that the mission wait until today, when the U.

In a rebuff to U.S. saber-rattling, Russia's top diplomat said Friday that the effort to resolve the confrontation with Iraq over its refusal to allow unfettered United Nations weapons inspections has only just begun, and he indicated that the United States is being too hasty in warning of imminent military action against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. "We are a little more patient," Foreign Minister Yevgeny M.

Russia and China urged the U.N. Security Council on Thursday to certify that Iraq has halted its nuclear weapons program. But other council diplomats said such a move was unlikely as long as Iraq defies U.N. orders to open all sites to weapons inspectors. "There are still patterns of concealment, insufficient information provided by Iraq and generally a lack of cooperation," said Bill Richardson, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. In Baghdad, meanwhile, U.N.

Iraq, Russia Sign Oil Deal: Iraq will let Russian oil companies develop its untapped oil fields when U.N. sanctions against Baghdad are lifted, the Middle East Economic Survey newsletter reported. Moscow and Baghdad have signed a deal that guarantees Russian companies the right to develop the West Qurna and North Rumaila oil fields in south Iraq that will produce a million barrels of oil a day when completed.

Just days before U.S.-led allies plan to bar Iraqi aircraft from the south, a senior U.N. official failed Friday to persuade Iraq to allow relief workers and armed guards to remain in the country. U.N. officials said Jan Eliasson, who had held five days of talks in Baghdad, will leave today for London to brief Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali. Eliasson, a Swede, is the U.N. undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs.

Faced with a sharp increase in smuggling of Iraqi oil in defiance of a U.N. embargo, the U.S. Navy seized a Russian-flagged tanker in the Persian Gulf and ordered it to port, where chemical tests can be made to determine the origin of its cargo, the Clinton administration said Thursday. The Russian Foreign Ministry protested the seizure and demanded immediate release of the ship and its crew. Moscow said the cargo was from Iran, not Iraq. However, U.S.

The U.N. Security Council on Friday approved a stopgap extension of its humanitarian program for Iraq for two weeks, during which it will try to break months of deadlock over a new comprehensive policy on Iraq. While Britain and the United States said there was now momentum to reach an agreement perhaps within two weeks, Russia and China stressed that major differences remained and insisted that there could be no artificial deadline.

Russia on Friday proposed dismantling the U.N. weapons inspection program in Iraq and replacing it with a less aggressive organization under the tight control of the Security Council. The United States quickly rejected the plan. "Eventually, down the road, there is a need for a [new] monitoring system. But in the short term and the medium term, we reject the proposal," said Peter Burleigh, the U.S. representative to the U.N.

The Iraqi government criticized the United States for opposing the appointment of a Russian as deputy chief of U.N. weapons inspectors, saying this proved that the Americans wanted to dominate inspection operations. The statement on the official Iraqi News Agency came as United Nations officials said Scott Ritter, an American once blocked from working by Iraq, has led an inspection team on visits to six sites the Iraqis consider "sensitive."

The breach that erupted Thursday between the United States and Russia over Iraq has been building for a long time, rooted in suspicions about duplicity and espionage, conflicting political goals and cynicism over rival economic interests in the Persian Gulf region. The tensions over Iraq have grown gradually since the 1991 Persian Gulf War but have been largely papered over to preserve a strong diplomatic relationship between the two former rivals.

No one in the West thought it was a very good idea in the first place: a group of grandstanding nationalist lawmakers from Russia heading for Iraq with a planeload of medicine and with plans to portray Iraqi President Saddam Hussein as the victim in the current high-stakes standoff. So when the technicality of getting formal U.N. approval for the humanitarian flight from Moscow to Baghdad came up over the weekend, U.S. and British diplomats demanded that the mission wait until today, when the U.

The Iraqi government criticized the United States for opposing the appointment of a Russian as deputy chief of U.N. weapons inspectors, saying this proved that the Americans wanted to dominate inspection operations. The statement on the official Iraqi News Agency came as United Nations officials said Scott Ritter, an American once blocked from working by Iraq, has led an inspection team on visits to six sites the Iraqis consider "sensitive."

The U.N. Security Council on Friday approved a stopgap extension of its humanitarian program for Iraq for two weeks, during which it will try to break months of deadlock over a new comprehensive policy on Iraq. While Britain and the United States said there was now momentum to reach an agreement perhaps within two weeks, Russia and China stressed that major differences remained and insisted that there could be no artificial deadline.

The Kremlin's embarrassing misstep--proclaiming a breakthrough in the Iraqi standoff, only to have Baghdad swiftly deny that any deal had been struck--may have punched new chinks in the armor of resolve girding Russian diplomats, but they continued scrambling Tuesday to head off another war in the Persian Gulf. Russian officials stood unconvincingly behind their Monday claims that, thanks to Russian diplomacy, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was ready to make concessions to the U.N.

Russia claimed credit Monday for a break in the international standoff with Iraq, asserting that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had agreed to a compromise that would let outsiders into some now-closed "presidential palaces" and possibly avert the growing threat of an American military strike to force Iraq's compliance with a disarmament program. But no sooner had the Kremlin publicized its diplomacy than American and United Nations officials called it insufficient and no real solution.